This month you’ll be hearing from David Bedrick who, in his book, makes the provocative statement that “There is no symptom that belongs only to the individual, whether that symptom is emotional, spiritual, physical, social, or financial. . . . When we don’t consider this larger web, we are more likely to feel shame about our suffering and our inability to heal our psychological symptoms. In essence, the individual may believe that their difficulty is only about them – their limits, pathologies, deficiencies, and failures.” In our dialogue with David, he tells us that these issues are not divorced fromRead More

Recently I was asked to be part of a beta-test of a time management program, headed up by a friend of mine. It was easy for me to say yes to her 8-week program because I’m always feeling the effects of too much to do in too little time. There was no doubt in my mind that I could use some help in scheduling my time more effectively. In the third week the assignment was that we consider the following questions: What’s a big recurring challenge you keep encountering with your time? What is the most elusive goal you wouldRead More

There are some successful programs to reintroduce wild wolves into their natural habitat in the U.S. This keystone species recovery activity is a long game and there remains much opposition to this movement, at least some of which stems from our mythological view of wolves as standing for all that is vicious, dangerous, and savage. Peterson outlines the uphill battle that this endangered species is undergoing. She shares many stories, including her experience of the capturing, transferring, and release of a wolf pack into the wild. She reminds us that Jacques Cousteau once said that people protect what they love,Read More

Robert Atkinson offers a deeply thoughtful view of conscious evolution drawn from the continuous wisdom of the world’s religions. He inspires hope as he traces love’s unifying power throughout history, and encourages us not to be distracted by seeming setbacks. This big picture view of human progress points to peaceful unity as our ultimate destination. How we get there depends on the stories we live by and the action we take. He says, “Love is the spiritual activism of our time.” Atkinson’s research shows that all the world’s religions are like branches of the same sacred tree, revealing the metaphor:Read More

Benedictine monk and world-renowned author Brother David Steindl-Rast says, “If you really understand this attitude of gratefulness, every moment gives you a unique opportunity. The difficulty that may come toward you is an opportunity for something else, and there is nothing to fear.” How can the spirit of gratitude change the world? How do your emotions hold you back from connecting to your loved ones, your work, and your life with renewed vitality, joy, and freedom? How is gratefulness the key to all the attitudes that all the great traditions have promoted? The answers to these and many other questionsRead More

“Up until now” is one of my most favorite phrases. Mary Morrissey reminds us that our destiny isn’t determined by our history. She tells us that it is our intentions that can be a most dynamic guide. Intention is the first creation. As Morrissey says, “We create in mind a thought-form of what we’d like to be experiencing. Without that thought-form, all the creative energy in the universe can’t form itself into a form that isn’t made. We are obliged, then, to create the ‘first creation,’ and that’s the one in mind . . . How you feel about theRead More

Andrew Forsthoefel created for himself a coming of age ritual. After graduating from college, he took a year to walk 4,000 miles across America. Along the way he experienced the hospitality of strangers and encountered countless remarkable stories. After several months on the road Andrew began to realize that people are generally kind-hearted. He explains, “I began to realize that people were basically kind and generous and the way people were responding to me had a lot to do with the way I was seeing them. I was seeing them as worthy of my time. I was seeing them asRead More

Buddhist teacher Ethan Nichtern describes ”heartmind” as an entwinement of our head, the cognizing, logical, reasoning intelligence, and our heart, the feeling intuitive, emotive intelligence. He exhorts us to turn our heartmind into our home – a place to live that is safe – and encourages us to welcome our emotions, whatever they may be, and then let them go. It is about having a relationship with our own mind. He speaks of a transformational activist as one who practices a kind of wholistic approach. It is the balancing of three levels of awareness: the personal, the interpersonal, and theRead More

We know our listeners are actively weaving a great web for a sustainable culture. As a listener to these deep dialogues, you are aware that, together, we are co-creating a network that fashions a world that works for all. Meditation teacher Dean Sluyter has said: “Sitting in the New Dimensions studio is an incredibly impressive experience – to be surrounded by the archives of the programs, Buckminster Fuller, David Bohm, the Dalai Lama, Joseph Campbell and to be sitting across the table from someone who has interviewed all those people, who represents that kind of wealth of experience and insight,Read More

Andrew Bienkowski grew up in Siberia, his family exiled by the Communist regime. In a life that began with nothing, living on soup made from discarded potato peelings, he learned that true wealth and happiness come from giving, and made his way observing the true value of gratitude, forgiveness, and understanding. With great humility and a smile, he weaves his plainspoken wisdom with stories of survival and relationship, and the reminder that the things that really matter are available to each of us, every hour of every day and, of course, even the darkest days have their treasures to offer.Read More